Four times! That’s how many times Cheyenne Walden has won state in cross country/track & field. This is a reward that made her become the only female runner and just the sixth runner in Oklahoma high school history to achieve. Cheyenne came into this sport her freshman year of high school, not knowing how cross country or track worked, or how this was going to be her future. She made a name for herself early into her running career, coming in second place at her very first official meet and winning every race after that. Holding records across the nation, and most of her current records beat her previous records. Her impressive level of focus and dedication is what sets her apart from other runners.
Coming from early childhood troubles and still accomplishing so much is what’s so impressive about her. Her parents divorced when she was around four years old, which forced her to go back and forth from house to house for a few years making life difficult. Cheyenne has four siblings which put a massive amount of stress on her mother. Cheyenne’s mother didn’t have a job at the time and obviously wanted to be able to support all of her children like all parents do, so she started going back to school to become a dentist when Cheyenne was around thirteen years old and still in middle school. Dental school takes around eight years to finish, so while her mother attended school Cheyennes grandmother was kind enough to help out as much as she could. Her grandmother watched over and took care of her and her siblings while her mother went to school.
Cheyennes mother went to school at five in the morning every day for around eight hours a day. After each day of classes her mother would go to work at a company in Stillwater called Meridian. The only time Cheyenne and her siblings saw their mother was right before they went to bed or just not at all on some days. Not being able to see and spend time with her mother was really hard on her and her siblings. Her father was also always working so they weren’t able to go to his house very often. Not having the normal parent-child relationship also made school very difficult, on top of her already struggling in school itself.
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Cheyenne is diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder and dyslexia. Her and her siblings would do homework every night together and school was tough for all of them, because a lot of the time they didn’t really know what they were doing. So she hardly ever had her homework done for school the next day. Her family moved to seventeen different houses throughout her whole childhood. Eventually they all got used to it and moving houses just became a normal thing for them. The longest they ever stayed in a house which is the house they’re in now, has been around 5 years.
When Cheyenne was younger she played many different sports including: football, softball, soccer, basketball, and ballet. She had a dream of becoming the first female NFL player, she knew it was crazy but football was the best thing she had at the time, because playing with the boys and not being treated differently was amazing to her. She really enjoyed playing tackle football with her brother and step-brother at the time. Her and her siblings would always either practice out in their front yard or after school on the playground. Football had a big impact on her, making her tougher and being able to handle her problems that she never thought she would be able to handle before. Cheyenne was always an active kid, besides her obsession for football she never really had a love for a certain sport. Sports to Cheyenne is what kept her sane, it took her mind off all of the hard times her and her siblings were going through. Life took a spin when she eventually found the running world.
Eighth grade year rolled around and Cheyenne noticed that her mom and sister started to run every day. They told her that they were practicing for a race coming up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma called the Rooster Day 5k. 5k’s are around 3.1 miles sometimes a little longer than that. Cheyenne was intrigued and wanted to try it out. Her mom informed her that she needed to start training if she really wanted to race with them. Cheyenne immediately started to go run with them after school every day. She trained for a few weeks with them and sometimes even on her own. Eventually race day was here, Cheyenne was super nervous especially because she’s never been at an event like this before nor raced in one. Cheyenne gets to the start line and some male runners that were next to her were trying to give her advice and tips on how to take on the race so she wasn’t dead by the end of it. Cheyennes initial thoughts were just to stick with them and basically learn how to run a 5k properly.
The race began and the guys next to her were trying to tell her to slow down because if she kept running at that same pace she would be not be able to finish. So as she is running for a while she notices that she is coming close to the finish line and she also notices that she was still right next to one of the guys that was giving her tips in the beginning of the race and she also noticed that she was ahead of the one that informed her on keeping her pace and slowing down. As she is in sight of the finish line she begins to pick up the pace to finish strong, also known as a runners “kick”. As she starts to kick she gets ahead of the guy next to her and all she can hear is the crowd cheering her on and telling her “good job”, that feeling made an impact on her and how she has felt about running ever since. She completes the race ahead of both of the guys who were giving her advice with a time of 20:20 which is very impressive for a female runners first race. The guys came up to her after the race and apologized for trying to tell her to slow down. That first race experience made her find the love and passion for the sport. She finds the running community so amazing because of how encouraging and nice everyone is no matter how you do.
Completing her first race, she knew right then that this was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Cheyenne started doing local races every now and then. At one of the local races she was running at, the Sand Springs High School cross country and track and field coaches noticed her and found interest and knew she had the potential to become something amazing. They figured out that she was moving to Sand Springs, so they set up a meeting so they could all talk about her future in running and potentially joining their team. They introduced her to the sport of cross country with her not knowing anything about it. They invited her to summer practices, she met a lot of new people from joining the team and she began to love running even more, because now she had people to run with and they also had the same love for the sport. She found passion and had dedication for running. Cheyennes freshman year, she won state in both cross country and track.
Her name was all around the running community and high school sports. Continuing to kill it throughout her high school career, by the time it was close to the end of her senior year she had accomplished more than any other Oklahoma female high school runner. Being only 5 foot 4 inches tall, Cheyenne achieved: Gatorade Girls Cross Country athlete of the year four years in a row, four Class 6A state championships in cross country, 5 state championships in Track and field, finished 34th at the Nike Cross Nationals Final, became the first Oklahoman to qualify for NXN Final twice, won gold medals in both events at the Oklahoma Track Coaches Association’s Meet of Champions, and also took 11th at the Foot Locker South Regional championships. Cheyenne is the most rewarded girls high school athlete to ever attend Sand Springs.
In conclusion, anything is possible if you set your mind to it. Focus and determination are keys to being successful. Cheyenne proves this by growing up with a rough childhood and still achieving as much as she has. Being diagnosed with learning disabilities she has still been able to prove to everyone that you really can overcome the hard times and do anything with dedication. She has spoken to youth groups about her learning challenges and how she works to overcome them. This sport changed her life forever and influenced her to demonstrate high academic achievement, model personal character, including volunteerism, sportsmanship and community leadership.
